Three Nute students take part in Legion contest

Thursday

Feb 7, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By John Nolanjnolan@fosters.com

MILTON — Students from Nute High School have once again competed in the American Legion’s nationwide Oratorical Contest, which has rounds at local, district, station and national level, and a final top prize of $18,000.

The National Americanism Chairman of the American Legion happens to live in Strafford County. Joe Caouette was present at last week’s local leg of the contest, staged by Post 61 in conjunction with Nute High School teacher Doug Decker, who this year, coached three participating students.

Caouette said that the contest originated in 1935, during the Great Depression, when Trotskyites on the left and Fascists on the right “were trying to get to the minds of young people — trying to get them to agree with their type of -isms.”

Caouette said that some World War I veterans decided to put on a program to counter this, and the first local Oratorical Contest was held in an old cow barn at Illinois State Fairgrounds. From there it quickly expanded.

“It has been a national program since 1938, asking young people to study a topic (related to the Constitution of the United States) and put it into an eight to 10 minute oration,” said Caouette, noting that many well-known people, such as Alan Keyes and Lou Dobbs had been participants in their youth.

“I really enjoy making the pilgrimage to Nute High School,” added Caouette, who attends every level of the contest, including the annual finals in Indianapolis, Ind., each year.

This year at Nute, the contestants were seniors Lydia Barca and Alex Goff, and sophomore Alana Hodson, and one at a time, they entered the classroom where three judges and a time keeper were seated, and gave their prepared orations.

One contestant drew parallels between a citizen’s duties and obligations under the Constitution to those of a school curriculum.

A second contestant discussed the legality, under the Constitution, of sending military personnel into wars and conflicts, and touched on the War Powers Act that was passed in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, and the way that several presidents since then have involved the country in conflicts without full Congressional approval.

A third candidate discussed the 2nd amendment, touched on school shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech and Newtown, queried whether the Founding Fathers, in the days of flintlocks firing a round every 20 seconds, had modern weaponry in mind, and discussed whether “a well regulated militia” extended to individuals owning assault weapons.

After each oration, the contestant left the room, and the judges — former Milton Elementary School Principal Nancy Drew, Post 61 Adjutant Gene Akerberg and this reporter — marked up their separate score sheets.

Next came the Assigned Topic part of the contest, in which each student had to talk for three to five minutes on an aspect of the Constitution. Each year, four topics are assigned, and students have to bone up on them all, even though only one will be drawn by chance.

The topics for 2013 contest, throughout the country, are:

Article II, section 1, paragraph 5: No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States;

Amendment 22, first sentence: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once;

Amendment 2: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed;

And Amendment 24: The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.

The first topic — perhaps the easiest — was drawn, the one detailing the criteria for a president. All three students covered the bases, and one revealed that two presidents have had their birth places challenged. President Obama, whose birth certificate confirmed (but still not to everyone’s satisfaction) that he was born in Hawaii, and Chester Alan Arthur, the 20th president. It was rumored, by his opponents, that Arthur was born in Canada, when he was actually born in Fairfield, Vt.

At the conclusion of this section, the judges again marked up their score sheets, and then retired into seclusion, to compare their tallies, and mutually agree upon the winner. Scores were close, but Hodson emerged the winner with Barca and Goff tied for second place.

Hodson now advances to the District 3 round, slated for Hampton Legion Post on Feb. 7. The winner of this contest will join other district winners in Concord for the state final.

This winner will collect $1,500 and advance to the expenses-paid national contest in Indianapolis, Ind. held April 19-21, with all 50 state champions, plus those from D.C., Puerto Rica, Mexico and France — 54 contestants in all. First prize, at this level, is $18,000 with second place getting $16,000 and third place awarded $14,000.